Vegan Fried Shishito Pepper / Okra Dish

*This was originally posted as Vegan Fried Okra, but apparently it’s Shishito Peppers! Lol I’m an idiot. The recipe is great for either, though, so carry on!

Southern cooking has my heart. All the delicious, buttery comfort food gives me the warm and fuzzies. I’m a huge fan of The Pioneer Women, Ree. After getting her cookbook a few years ago, I immediately began cooking anything and everything Southern. Just ask my husband or brother, for a while they’d come home to a new pie every day. I felt like a Disney Princess, whistling around my kitchen, in hopes that a group of birds would come in and help with the dishes. One of my favorite southern dishes is Fried Okra! Now that I’m blogging with more of an emphasis on Vegan/ Veg food, I thought I’d give you a Vegan Fried Okra Shishito Pepper dish to try for yourself! I’d never made it before, so this was a great opportunity to learn something new!

As much as I love Sothern Cooking, my waistline doesn’t. This Vegan Fried Shishito Pepper dish is one of the rare unhealthy things that you’ll see me post. It’s deep fried, covered in corn meal and flour goodness, and guaranteed to please. Just maybe walk around a bit after you eat it 😝

For thisVegan Fried Shishito Pepper/ Okra dish, I made a few modifications to try to get the best consistency possible. I used unsweetened almond milk instead of the buttermilk the traditional recipe calls for, and after the first batch, I thickened the almond milk up a little by adding 1/2 teaspoon of Xanthan Gum. Xanthan gum is a “natural” thickener, and it’s great to use in smoothies, dressings, and soups as well. I was turned on to it during my raw vegan days. It gets some flack because it’s unclear if it’s bad for you or not, but I figured if I’m deep-frying my dinner, who tf cares?? You judge for yourself, I’m not yo momma!

Additionally, for this Vegan Fried Shishito Pepper recipe, I tried using Panko (bread crumbs) in addition to the corn meal and flour mix. This combination didn’t work as well as I’d thought because the almond milk was still a bit runny. If I had been using a recipe with egg or butter, it might have worked better. In the end, I found that the corn meal and flour mix did the best job of (kind of) keeping the breading on the okra.

Okay, here we go with Vegan Fried Shishito Pepper!

Gather and rinse your Shishito Peppers/ okra

Cut off the stem and bottom of your Shishito Peppers/ okra, then slice into 1″ pieces

Sarah

March 1, 2017 at 3:09 am

That’s too bad if Whole Foods mislabeled them! Okra is already so rare and unused in many parts of the country, it’s a shame for them to make it more confusing. Google an image of okra and you’ll be able to tell. They are long and tapered with small hairs on the outside. They’re segmented and very slimy inside which helps give them a nice texture when fried, and they have these wonderful round seeds that burst in your mouth. (Can you tell I’m in love?)